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New York Giants’ Tom Coughlin is Confident Eli Manning Will Rebound from Poor Performences

November 7th, 2012 at 3:59 PM By Paul Tierney

Yesterday here at Giants 101, we talked about how Eli Manning must rebound from his recent poor performances and get the offense back on track. As quarterback, he is the leader of the offense and the Giants will live and die by his arm. This past Sunday, Eli put up a quarterback rating of 41.1. That's just not good enough to win in the NFL. However, the general consensus is that Eli is too talented of a player to keep inhibiting the production of Big Blue's offensive machine. Today, head coach Tom Coughlin agreed with those sentiments.

Coughlin and Manning had a sit down conversation in which both player and coach agreed that Eli needs to raise his level of play. Coughlin stressed that it's imperative for Manning to get back to fundamentals and making the correct reads at the line of scrimmage.

"We talked. We've talked. Yesterday, we had a nice conversation," Coughlin said. "Most of the time it's about fundamentals and about us getting going, and what can I do to help. And little things that I could do to tweak in terms of practice that may help us. He's been very responsive with regard to that. We've been down this road before. He's going to get this thing right, get our offensive team going again and get us on track. I fully believe that and have great confidence in his ability to do that."

The Giants have no choice but to trust that Eli Manning will get his act together. It's not like the team has a backup plan in case their franchise player starts imploding over the course of a season. However, there is no tangible evidence that Eli is going to sustain this level of play. With 2011 as an exception, Eli has been wildly inconsistent in his play throughout his career. We've seen him lead two Super Bowl winning drives, as well as throw three interceptions in one half to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There's no rhyme or reason for it, but Eli has his moments of brilliance that earns him comparisons to the league's elite quarterbacks, while he also has those occasional games in which he appears dumbfounded. However, when it counts most, Giants fans can usually rely on Eli to come through when his team needs him. This is what he's built his reputation on, and it will have to continue if the Giants want to repeat as Super Bowl champions this year. Coughlin thinks that in order to get back to an elite level, the Giants must correct some issues in practice.

"Let's get on the same page. Let's practice well," Coughlin said. "Let's do a great job in recognition in terms of our adjustments. Let's be decisive. Let's get the ball thrown on target to the receiver, according to what the coverage does us to do. It's just a rhythm. The one thing that nobody's really picked up, which is kind of interesting, is that you don't get any continuity offensively if you don't make any first downs. We haven't had any first downs in two weeks."

Eli Manning has been terrible as of late. The Giants offense has been stagnant and the defense has been the only thing keeping this team in games. For Big Blue to excel against some of the tougher competition remaining on the schedule, it's important that Eli gets his act together quickly. Eli has earned the benefit of the doubt from fans and the coaching staff, but the Giants needs him to correct his mistakes sooner rather than later.

I may … from time to time … knock Eli’s performance. But for the record he’s the best QB we’ve ever had. And if he never completed another pass he’s been worth every penny and draft pick they paid to get him. 2 Superbowls … there’s a deal I’ll take every time … every time.

It seems that the prevailing thought around the lack of carries for David Wilson is because of his assumed lack of skill/knowledge in the pass protection game. Just wondering if there is any league wide, or Tom Coughlin specific, history of QBs being excessively hit or injured because of a rookie/inexperienced RB being in the game that would explain the reluctance to use Wilson.

If the pass blocking is the main reason for Wilson not getting many offensive touches, then I don’t like that it feels like we are playing the game in fear of doing anything that might get our precious Eli injured. It obviously comes down to a measure of the risk/reward of having Wilson in the game, and from what I’ve seen so far the rewards seem quite high and the chances that he would miss a block or mess up his assignment don’t seem like they are soooo much worse than with Bradshaw or Brown in the backfield, and they could also be minimized with better game planning.

Also, assuming that all teams that have rookie running backs must game plan for this horrible deficiency that these young running backs bring with them from college, how come teams like Cleveland/Tampa/Washington can have success with these young players while still protecting their QB’s? It seems like Gilbride is too lazy to try and come up with anything specific for Wilsons skill set. So far all he has done is use plays that any peewee coach could have come up with like the wide toss to get Wilson in open space that has worked zero times.

Well, there was undrafted Terrell Davis protecting sure-fire Hall of Famer John Elway and rookie Joseph Addai protecting sure-fire Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, both as rookies, both delivering said quarterbacks their first Super Bowl championships.

And that’s in the last 15 years. So these youngster running backs delivered 20% of the last 15 Super Bowls, with their HOF quarterbacks unable to ever do so previously.

I’m pretty sure G101 god/draft wizard Jerry Reese’s hand picked, first round draft pick, highly compensated professional football player running back could contribute to a guy who’s already won two Super Bowls as well.

Not to be harsh, and the Giants are obviously a stand up organisaton that look after their players, but shouldn’t we be doing whatever we can to bring home more lombardi trophies while we have Eli here and in his prime(apart from the last few weeks). The future money making opportunities or the length of a players career shouldn’t really be a big part of their thinking.

My feeling on the subject is there seems to be a accepted belief that running backs must not fumble and must be able to pass protect. Also 20 years ago, they also had to be able to “lead” block for the other back in the formation.

But its the pass blocking that is most important, especially now when a missed assignment can get a QB maimed. I feel it’s a combination of knowing the plays and having the physicality to be a blocker. Some young first year players have it (Doug Martin) and some don’t (David Wilson).

Coughlin is very old school, and the minute Wilson fumbled, he went into the dog house. But also notice that Wilson is trusted on special teams. I think its just a matter of Wilson becoming strong enough to step up and take on linemen and linebackers in pass protection schemes. I feel he is not the most physical Giant back. But I also feel that is going to change. Either way, he needs some touches during the second half of this season.

My biggest fear is that the same Tom Coughlin who thinks David Diehl is going to be alright, also thinks Eli will come around. Ironically, playing Diehl almost guarantees that Eli “WONT” be OK.

Right now, TC and Gilbride scare the hell out of me in relation to the rest of the season. They both need to step up their games as much as the players do. IMHO.

In 1899 Notre Dame QB Angus (Big Ang) McDonald was knocked unconscious when freshman RB John (The Eggman) Eggemann missed a critical block. It made such an impression on then ’12 year old ball boy’ Tom Coughlin that he vowed never to let that happen again.